FALCON Basics: Speed, Accuracy, Power
FALCON will have state-of-the-art powers for collating information from multiple sources, identifying criminal suspects, and reporting data. It will improve and expand positive biometric identification directly to the end user and ties a criminal's identification - with fingerprints - to a criminal history which will be more complete and easier to understand than ever before. It will also enable the comparison of palm prints and dynamic image management.
- It will be integrated, with capabilities to pull information from local, state, and national databases.
- It will be multi-media, even showing scars, marks, and tattoos.
- It will produce a clear, readable criminal history record (rap sheet).
- And it will do all of this through a single web portal that authorized users access directly.
Livescan prints.
Livescan technology is a paperless, electronic means for obtaining a person's fingerprints and palm prints. Portable versions of this technology will be available for use in patrol cars for roadside or crime scene use. Scanned prints will then be rapidly processed by FALCON, linking the identity to possible criminal histories, outstanding warrants, or other danger alerts.
Local, state, and federal data.
For criminal justice agencies, searching by fields such as date of birth, or by text queries, FALCON automatically surveys databases at Florida criminal justice agencies, courts, correctional facilities, and at participating federal agencies. It also links to other records such as driver licenses. Even for interstate criminal history queries, FALCON will return a single combined report.
Readable rap sheets.
Florida's criminal histories, known as rap sheets, currently use short phrases or cutoff words to describe an arrest or a court action and are notoriously difficult to read. But FALCON's rap sheets will use a reader-friendly format of clearly defined sections. The online and printed reports will also allow combinations of text, photographs, and scans. Even more versatile, agencies can customize rap sheet contents for their specific needs: perhaps felonies first, or all data chronologically, or, for criminal justice agencies, mug shots alongside driver photos. Computer-readable formats will also be made available.